November 23, 2010
For a number of reasons, I decided to buy a pack of Costco cash cards almost a month ago. I’d ordered one online once before and it was easier (way easier) than pie. Quick order, mail delivery, phone activation and off to the races.
I’d wanted to keep an eye on our gas and grocery spending differently, and they’re nice gifts as well, so I sprang for a whole stack of $50 cards for the sake of flexibility. They were delivered pretty much as expected to me within a week or so after ordering and I put them away until I needed to use them. My preference is not to activate so much money and let it lie around like cash if I don’t have to. It’d be a colossal heartbreak if I managed to lose a Costco cash card, right?
Turns out, having them has been the worst case of heartburn.
The morning of the day we wanted to use the first one, I called in to activate the card using the automated system. The numbers weren’t recognized. I was routed to a CSR. She couldn’t understand every other word I was saying. It might have helped if she’d bothered to listen to me when I was speaking. But never ye mind that.
She insisted that there was no such card number in the system. Wait, please hold. No, the card number isn’t the problem. My phone number doesn’t exist.
What?
Get this: you don’t just need your card, and the sticker on the card to phone them with. They want you to have the card, the card carrier with its secret information printed on it (which they tell you is incorrect or has already been used anyway), the phone number of the person who ordered the fragging cards in the first place (so if you were surprised or Secret Santaed, outta luck), and even to identify the color of freaking sticker with the activation number printed on it.
Why? Why on God’s Green EARTH is all of this necessary?
After an hour on the phone with them, I gave up and left it with PiC. He tossed it into the glove compartment after being put on hold, routed to three different phone numbers, and given a very-merry-go-round as well.
We ended up having to go into the actual warehouse to ask Member Services for help, and they gave that rep the same guff to activate one card. He was totally painfully cheerful throughout the idiotic process, up to the point where they asked him about the sticker. Even he couldn’t fake it, then.
We have nine others. I’m seriously considering returning them and demanding my money back.
September 11, 2010
Ok – though I’d promised Week of the Geek, I ran out of time because some candidate interviews crept up on me. My boss has been incredibly busy and so I was scrambling to rearrange the whole interviewing schedule on the fly while trying to hide the fact so the candidate didn’t think I and we were complete idiots. We’re not, we’re decent people, honest, but it’s been chaotic because 80% of the company is undergoing a systems change in a week. (*gulp*)
It turns out that it didn’t matter so very much. While I usually choose not to talk about my work here on the blog, I felt like so much of what I learned this week during the interview process was worth a mention.
Do you remember when “they”say: be nice to the secretary? That’s all very well and good, but I would like to extend that to a General Corollary: be polite to everyone. In my company, the semi-crazy looking dude in a weird t-shirt is the CEO. Some days. Other days, he’s pretty spiffy. But Upper Management does not feel compelled to wear their titles so no matter who you meet, no matter how dressed up or dressed down they are, if you don’t know their names and who they are, it’s not safe to assume they’re a nobody and treat them accordingly.
LISTEN. And Do Your Research.
Candidate No-Way never did either.
We’re a small enough company that my name is not repeated so a quick check of the company website would have given any candidate a good idea of who I was. CNW both ignored my self-introduction as a member of the interviewing panel and didn’t have any idea what I did in the company. Had CNW bothered to do any background research or listened to my explanation of the structure that she requested, CNW would have realized that her prospective position would be partially managed by … me.
Never mind that, though, I enjoy observing people’s behavior when they think I’m either monolingual, a teenage kid with no role, or an assistant. CNW was pushy, aggressive and ran right over me in conversation when given the opportunity.
I manage a large group that would be two tiers below this one, and there’s no way I’d recommend a candidate who’d treat me in that aggressive manner without knowing who I am during an interview; how do you suppose she’d treat my staff?
That was just my first impression.
My ruminations later covered our actual interview over lunch and her multiple gaffes there, again very much variations on the above themes:
A) Despite having interviewed with the hiring manager and her prospective boss, she couldn’t remember his name;
B) Despite having interviewed with my boss, and her boss’s boss, she couldn’t remember either of their names;
C) Despite having been told more than once who reported to whom, she asked me if the BiggestBoss reported to her prospective boss;
D) She mistook my boss for the office manager after spending an hour with him.
E) She took the lunch interview far too casually, acting like we were just friends on a lunch date
I have the feeling, after she dropped mentions of job offers in the East Bay and the considerations of San Diego that she didn’t actually want this job much anyway. After all, she couldn’t be bothered to do much preparation so I’m sure it won’t break her heart that we’re extending an offer to the other candidate instead.
But if you actually care about landing a decent job with a company you think “is incredibly cool with a great mission,” I cannot recommend any of the above techniques.
Hat-tip to Alison Green at Ask A Manager for articulating so much good hiring advice that CNW’s smooth attempts to hide her poor candidacy through constant, dominant conversation was obviously a snow job even to this less-experienced interviewer. She does boot camps!
September 16, 2009
Six hours after hearing the news, I’m still unable to breathe normally or stop the tears. There’s no emotional distance to be had, not tonight, nor any of the composure I’ll need when I make the call in the morning. Or in a few hours. It’s already morning.
A very good friend’s father lies in the hospital tonight. Today. He won’t be coming home. Two of his children are already by his side, the third makes haste to arrange matters by tomorrow. A great heartache is in the offing, a great man is dying of end stage liver cancer.
Mr. S was one of the few adults left in my life who remained the pinnacle of a respected elder. He humbly set an example without ever breaking stride, without disappointing me by descending into pettiness like so many adults I’ve grown up among have done. He made smart, solid decisions, provided for his family and I really kind of wanted to be just like him when I grew up. He was, in many ways, like my beloved grandma.
I keep hearing myself say “but we still have so much to learn from him!” and “it’s just not fair!”
And it’s not.
I write in broken hope that it might ease the realization into my heart so that I can be there for the family in some small way this week. It has to, my throat keeps closing with grief when I remember why I’m going call them and see them.
May 27, 2008
I hope everyone had a happy Memorial Day weekend!
I’m back and honestly, a little sad about it. It seems like Monday saved all its wrath and handed it off to Tuesday. Missed my train this morning because we were pulled over for being a few miles over the speed limit [ARGH!], got a cryptic call from MaDucky about the bank and money, found that my internet service has increased another $4 per month. *sigh* And of course, that’d be the one service I had on automatic billing to my credit card, so I had to research the bills that I’d been paying over the past several months to prepare for another lengthy phone call. $22/month still isn’t bad compared to the other services out there, but I don’t like having the price increased on me without warning, and at their whim.
I did manage to convince the cable company to discount my bill 50% for poor service. If I want to cancel early, it’ll cost approximately $40 in rebate penalties. I’m still thinking about it, though, because I have three months left in our contract. Pay $40 now to save $80? Of course, the $40 is for the privilege of cancelling and not for another month’s service, but it’d probably still be worth it.
March 7, 2008
Apparently, the bad day wasn’t going to end with the overdraft fees.
Coworker 3 got really sick yesterday and didn’t have a ride home, so I left the office at the same time to give him a lift from the train station.
An hour after I’d dropped him off at home and my dad off at work, I headed to Wamu to deposit some checks that I’d just gotten. And I was using the additional ATM around a dark corner of the bank building, which is creepy enough, when some guy came and stood directly behind me where I couldn’t see him, instead of standing in line where you’re supposed to around the corner. And the Wamu card in my wallet was expired. I took that, and the creepy guy behind me, as a sign to just get out of there.
Only to discover that my mom had gotten another flat tire driving my car. This is the second one in two weeks, the SIXTH one in two years.
Had to go home, pick up the right card, and head back out to other Wamu in town.
And at the less creepy drive-up ATM, the first of my three checks were deposited, and the other two were rejected because I’d “reached my daily limit.” ???? There’s a limit on how many deposits I can make??? I got really hot, but it was almost 8 pm by then, and there was nothing I could do except yell at the machine. So I did. At least I’d deposited the checks in order from greatest to smallest amounts, so it covered the overdrafted amounts and then some.
Finally, upon getting home, I discovered that my old puppy is just failing. He’s not eating anymore, and I’m going to have to make the appointment to take him in to the vet. For you know what. Just thinking it is breaking my heart.
I know I’m not defeated, but it sure feels like it.
At least today’s another day.